Quite Imposing

Online Guide 1.2

GENERAL FUNCTIONS

Dire warnings

If you are about to jump in and use Quite Imposing, here are a few things to watch out for. But don’t panic!

• If you are imposing and sending the results on for professional printing, don’t try to guess what the printer will want from you. They might need to do their own imposition in special ways. Always check.

• As described in Tips for desktop printing , if you are printing to a laser printer or similar, putting printed pages back in to print double sided can cause serious damage to the printer.

• Most imposition functions break or lose links, bookmarks etc.

• Form fields might be used to add text or pictures to makes. Quite Imposing will lose them when imposes.

• Don’t force Quite Imposing to break the 45 inch square limit on page sizes in Acrobat 3.0 (200 inches square in Acrobat 4.0). Acrobat will start to behave oddly.

• Trim and shift allows you to reach outside the original page size, and the results of this aren’t guaranteed. See the longer discussion in Trim And Shift .

• In General Preferences, switch off “Display page to edge”; otherwise imposing may seem to add margins.

• As always when working with Acrobat, keep your original files, don’t rely on being able to fix PDFs.

About the Demo Version

Quite Imposing and Quite Imposing Plus will run automatically as a demonstration until you license them. Please contact us if you have any difficulty obtaining a demonstration version, as we would really like you to have the opportunity to try out Quite Imposing and make sure it is suitable for your needs, before you buy.

If you are using a demo copy of this software, it will mark pages with an “X” when it performs imposition. We hope this does not interfere with your evaluation of the product.

There are a few other restrictions, since we do, after all, want you to buy a copy, not do all your work with the demo!

Shuffle Pages for imposition will add an X to the pages shuffled, so for safety it always makes a copy of the pages.

In addition, in Quite Imposing Plus, the Stick on Masking Tape function will place an X over the (otherwise usually invisible) tape, and Stick on Page Numbers will add the word DEMO after each number.

Also in Plus, bleeds can only be defined for use within the demo version; bleeds don’t carry to the licensed product. Finally, Image Info will only report information for impositions made in demo mode.

See http://www.quite.com/imposing/ if you need any help finding a reseller once you’ve evaluated the demo.

About Quite Imposing

Imposing (or imposition) is all about combining pages before you print them. It has been done for hundreds of years, and virtually every book or leaflet you pick up will have been imposed.

Despite this, imposition is one of the mysteries of electronic publishing. Some desktop publishing (DTP) applications will impose for you, so you can make up the pages on screen. But this is often a cumbersome process, and only a few applications give you this choice.

Usually, it is up to the printer (the person, not the machine) to do imposition, using specialist applications. These applications are often limited, and can only impose the results of a specific list of applications.

Quite Imposing aims to be a tool for a wide range of people. From the publisher of a small newsletter who’d like it to be a fold-over booklet, up to professional printers who’d like a simpler or more flexible solution to their imposition needs.

Quite Imposing is for people who are working with Adobe’s Acrobat suite, which creates and modifies PDF files. Up ’til now, Acrobat Exchange has allowed pages to be rearranged, or documents split or joined, but not much more. But PDF is a flexible format, suited to imposing.

With Quite Imposing, you can impose any PDF file (except those using Acrobat’s security options). You’ll make a new PDF file, which you can see on screen and make sure it has the correct arrangement, before printing. This should save on many expensive mistakes.

The Quite Imposing Philosophy

What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) has been the norm in most graphics and publishing applications for some time now, but most imposition hasn’t been. With Quite Imposing, the results of your imposition will be a PDF document, which you can view or print to check what you will see before wasting more expensive media.

We know there is more to imposition than just arranging pages. We have a range of tools to do the other functions you will need, like adding page numbers, or adjusting margins.

Almost all of the functions in Quite Imposing work with an existing PDF file which you have opened in Acrobat Exchange. Many of the functions will create a new document. These aren’t saved automatically, because often you will just print them, or do more processing. You just save the files you need.

Because the results of the imposing functions are PDF documents, you can run a series of functions, and keep the end result. You could add page numbers, crop even and odd pages differently, then create a booklet.

Some parts of Quite Imposing do fairly complicated tasks (like Shuffle Pages For Imposing or n-Up Pages ). Others are simple building blocks (like Reverse Pages ). You will also use standard parts of Acrobat Exchange, such as Insert Document, if you need to merge files before imposing.

Quite Imposing Plus – Quite Imposing’s bigger brother

This is the manual for the Quite Imposing product. Also available is Quite Imposing Plus, which has everything in Quite Imposing, plus a number of features which build on the basic imposition and add a number of useful tools. Quite Imposing Plus includes:

• Step and repeat, allowing multiple copies of each page to fill a sheet (e.g. business cards).

• Manual Imposition, allowing you to manually impose single pages for special one-off effects.

• Imposition Info which gives details and accountability on the pages which went into an imposition, and allows imposed pages to be deleted, or the original pages to be extracted for reuse.

• Define bleeds allows you to set up pages with “bleeds” which will over-run into the space between imposed pages. This is used to allow printing right to the edge of a printed page, by trimming it to the registration marks.

• Stick on page numbers allows you to add numbers to any document.

• Stick on masking tape allows you to stick on a white “tape” to cover parts of the page you don’t want. Layouts of tape can be remembered and played back.

• Peel off page numbers removes the numbers you add

• Peel off masking tape can remove the tape

• Peel off registration marks allows unwanted registration marks to be removed from a page.

When not to use Quite Imposing

We don’t want to pretend Quite Imposing will suit everyone. As the first imposition tool to work inside Acrobat Exchange, we had to decide what to put in, and what to leave out.

If these apply, Quite Imposing may not suit you well:

• If you have to make up complex impositions that can’t be easily expressed as n-up layouts, especially if you have to repeatedly do the same job. Although you can use Remember Last Action to memorise the elements of imposition, there is a point where this is not feasible.

• Where a page re-ordering for Shuffle Pages For Imposing can’t be expressed in 255 characters. This should accommodate signatures up to about 64 pages; although typing the order the first time is tedious, it can be memorised with Remember Last Action.

• If you have a requirement for a highly automated work- flow. Quite Imposing expects to have someone “driving” it at all times.

• If you are preparing interactive documents with extensive use of links etc. Quite Imposing is targeted at printing, so it doesn’t make any effort to preserve links. Also if you use form elements to add information to pages.

• If you need “bottling” or “shingling”, specialist adjustments.

Quite Imposing contains a robust imposition engine, and we expect other developers to license it for their own solutions. In some cases, these solutions may suit people who would not otherwise find Quite Imposing useful.

Before You Start

To get the best out of Quite Imposing, you need to know how to get the best out of Acrobat. And you need to know the limitations of Acrobat. You should satisfy yourself that you can make PDF files of sufficient quality, and that you can print them successfully.

So, before you start, you should work with PDF files, your favourite application, and your printer: Some tips:

• There are two important ways to make PDF files: PDFWriter and Distiller. Both have their strengths, but for the most control and usually the highest quality you’ll want to use Distiller.

• Both PDFWriter and Distiller have settings you must adjust to get high quality results. Both of them are set up to produce the smallest possible file, out of the box.But the smallest files get to be the smallest by reducing quality. Read the Distiller or PDFWriter help files to understand your options.

• Acrobat 3.0 won’t handle files larger than 45 inches on a side. That’s about 1140 mm. Acrobat 4.0, however, can handle files up to 200 inches on a side (5080 mm). Be sure to use Acrobat 4.0 for all imposition and output if you need the larger sizes.

• Acrobat was originally designed for desktop printing, and doesn’t have a full range of controls for typesetters. Also, new printers are coming out all of the time, and not every one prints perfectly from Acrobat. Try it out before you commit yourself to using Acrobat or Quite Imposing.

Running Quite Imposing

This manual doesn’t cover how to install the Quite Imposing plug-in, which is usually a matter of copying a file into the Acrobat Exchange plug-ins folder. Look for separate getting started instructions or a README file.

Quite Imposing works with Acrobat 3.0 and above only. If the plug-in is correctly installed you will see a menu Plug- ins, with an entry Quite Imposing. If this menu item does not appear, then Quite Imposing is not correctly installed.

You can use the entries in the Quite Imposing menu to start all of the functions in Quite Imposing. Alternatively, you can just select Imposition Control Panel , which starts a control panel giving buttons ready to run each function.

It is worth experimenting with each of the functions to see how they work. You may find it useful to combine functions in ways you didn’t expect.

Take care not to damage your original files. Some, but not all, functions will create new PDF files, making a copy of the old. Check the table on the next page to see which functions do this. Always remember that there is a Create Sample Document function which is a good starting point for your experiments. For safety, Quite Imposing never saves or overwrites a file automatically – you must choose to do this.

The most common cause of a failure in Quite Imposing is reaching Acrobat Exchange’s limit of 10 open files. There’s nothing we can do to increase that limit, so close down the files you don’t need any more.

Which functions modify existing documents?

Function Modifies existing document

Imposition Control Panel not applicable

Create booklet never

n-Up Pages never

Join Two Pages always

Shuffle Even/Odd Pages optional

Shuffle Pages For Imposing optional

Reverse Pages optional

Trim And Shift always

Insert Blank Pages optional

Create Sample Document never

Seven Top Tips

1. It’s very important to realise that Quite Imposing was designed with printing in mind, not interactive documents. You can use Quite Imposing on any document, but it will usually lose or damage any links or bookmarks you have set up.

2. Remember to save the documents you need, and to give them meaningful names. It isn’t a good idea to save the files as “New document” or “Booklet” though nothing will stop you.

3. Remember to close down the files you don’t need to avoid reaching Exchange’s 10 document limit.

4. Print your sample documents and measure them carefully to make sure everything is as you expect.

5. Avoid the Touch-Up tool (“T” icon) in Acrobat Exchange if you can. It makes it impossible to remove or find out about the changes made by Quite Imposing. If you do need to use Touch-Up, use it before any imposition.

6. If you are scaling pages up or down, Acrobat will scale most things, including text, perfectly. But if you have included bitmap images, scaling up may cause the quality to degrade noticeably.

7. If you are working with a desktop printer, make sure to read Tips for desktop printing .

What’s new in 1.2?

If you used Quite Imposing 1.0, here’s a summary of what’s new in 1.2. The product is designed to look very similar and work in the same way as 1.0, but there are new options in a number of places.

Acrobat 4.0 compatibility

Quite Imposing 1.2 is fully compatible with Acrobat 4.0, and continues to work with Acrobat 3.0.

Booklet maker improvements

“Cut stacks” option

When using the booklet maker, you have had the choice of sequential, saddle stitched, or perfect bound. A new option, “cut stacks” is now available. In this model, the printed pages are simply cut in two and one half lifted onto the other, before binding. You can choose between preparing pages for single-sided or double-sided printing.

Choice of alignment

Previously, all pages which did not exactly fit one-half of the imposed sheet were placed in the bottom left of their half of the page. A new booklet maker page has been added, allowing to choose between the original scheme, centring each page in its half of the sheet, and pulling pages towards the centre (typically the spine). There is a diagram to illustrate the effect of each choice.

Shuffle pages improvements

Preview of layout

Some people have found it difficult to visualise the effect of the ordering in Shuffle pages. To help with this, there is now a Preview button, which will show the effect of the shuffle if the pages are (later) arranged with n-up.

Two facing sheets are shown, typically front and back of a final printed sheet.

Advanced options - shuffle for saddle stitching

There is a new option when shuffling pages to make it possible to shuffle the pages for a large saddle stitched booklet. Often, the rule for only the front and back of the first sheet is needed.

This is discussed in more detail with examples in Shuffle Pages For Imposing.

Interpretation of “<“and “>” - bug fix

Note that in versions of Quite Imposing before 1.0e, the meaning of the “<“and “>” characters was accidentally reversed. This has been fixed.

Trim and Shift - new options

Setting an exact page size

A new option appears on the “Trim” page. This can be used to set one or all pages in a document to a particular exact size. This is helpful where pages are not exactly the right size for an intended imposition, for instance if the have been roughly cropped. The original page is centred, and is trimmed or extended on all four sides.

Advanced options for page handling

Previously, when a page was extended, it could uncover information that had been cropped. Also, trimming or shifting sometimes had a surprising effect when exporting PostScript for later printing, since pages did not appear to shift. A new option is available which deals with both of these issues. It remains an option, because the original scheme preserves links, form fields, and other annotations in their place. In the new scheme, links etc. may seem to move on the page. You choose between these two schemes using the Advanced button on the first Trim & Shift page.

Page sizes

Increased maximum

In Acrobat 3, the maximum allowed page size is 45 x 45 inches (1143 x 1143 mm). In Acrobat 4, the maximum has been increased to 200 x 200 inches (5080 x 5080 mm). You should always work within the limits. Quite Imposing may be fooled into creating larger pages, but you aren't likely to be able to work with them.

Quite Imposing has a page size called Maximum. This is a convenient way of choosing a large imposition area, usually allowing it to be cropped to hold just the required information. The definition of “Maximum” will automatically change when running in Acrobat 4 to be 200 x 200 inches (except in saved impositions - using the memory function - where this may be undesirable).

In addition, when running in Acrobat 4, there will be a page size of Acrobat 3.0 maximum, 45 x 45 inches, which can be used if compatibility with other Acrobat 3.0 users is needed.

Increased accuracy

In Acrobat 3 all page sizes were rounded to the nearest point (1/72 inch, about 0.35 mm). This meant that page sizes were not always as requested, especially when using millimetres. This rounding off could produce noticeable effects when many pages were imposed together.

Acrobat 4 no longer rounds page sizes, and when Quite Imposing is used with Acrobat 4, it will allow more accurate page sizes to be created.

Bleeds

Bleeds are areas around the edge of pages which overlap the nominal page size to allow for inaccuracies in trimming.

Acrobat allows pages in a file to be marked up specially to describe the amount of bleed to be used.

Bleeds are considered a function of Quite Imposing Plus, now Quite Imposing. However, Quite Imposing will honour bleeds that are set by other application.

Bleeds follow a new standard in Acrobat 4, so there may be other tools that create bleeds. Be aware of this if the nup pages function gives unexpected overlap.

? and ?? buttons

Quite plug-ins have a new standard for help (?) buttons. The button with a single question mark (?) now opens the on-line guide. The button with two question marks (??) now opens the “about” and licensing screen.

How do I...?

Some functions which may not be immediately obvious.

...use measurements easily?

Quite Imposing uses the current units that you have selected in File | General Preferences. These may be inches, mm, or points. These are used consistently, except that type size is always measured in points.

On any screen where you can type a measurement, you can type a simple fraction using the “/” key. For instance you can type 3/8, and this will be converted to 0.375.

...merge multiple PDF documents into one imposition?

Use the standard Acrobat Exchange functions. For instance, open the first document and use Document | Insert Pages to add successive documents to the end. The Quite Imposing function Insert Blank Pages may be useful if you have to pad out pages to an odd boundary. There’s no need to save this merged document – you can go directly to imposition.

Another useful Acrobat Exchange function that many people miss is that you can arrange pages using drag and drop. Open the thumbnail view (no need to create thumbnails). You can drag from the page number under the thumbnail to rearrange a document. If you open two documents side-by-side you can copy pages between the documents by dragging thumbnails.

...plan an imposition?

To make an imposition which is more than a 2-up booklet you will probably need to plan the imposition. Typically impositions are made using Shuffle Pages For Imposing , then n-Up Pages . A common planning technique is to make a “folding model”, where the sheet is folded as it is intended before trimming, then the pages are numbered. Most impositions repeat themselves after the first 1 or 2 sheets. Consider the front and back as consecutive sheets.

Once you have unfolded your labelled plan, you need to decide how to re-order the pages on it. Each sheet will be imposed left to right, then top to bottom. You use Shuffle Pages For Imposing to re-order the pages to match the required order, and it will repeat the order as often as required. It can turn pages by 90,180, or 270 degrees and add blank sheets if required.

Then, n-Up Pages is used. It can be used to add margins around the page, crop marks, spacing between rows and columns (“gutter”), as it places the page. It can be used to impose onto a background sheet, e.g. with colour bars on it. Optionally n-up pages will trim sheets so they have no extra space around them. The n-up function can handle pages of different sizes, and will pack them in as tightly as it can.

You might also use Trim And Shift to add binding offsets, make page sizes uniform, or allow for “creep”. This is usually done first, before Shuffle Pages.

The entries Shuffle Pages For Imposing , then n-Up Pages include a number of worked examples.

...add a binding offset?

You may want to shift even and odd pages by different amounts in order to allow for space lost in binding. You can easily do this with Trim And Shift.

...impose onto a pre-defined template? use colour bars? custom registration marks?

You can do imposition via n-Up Pages and select a background. This is a PDF file whose pages will be placed behind the imposition in each case. Once a background is defined (see Using backgrounds ) you can select it as easily as a page size.

...add margins or crop marks around each page?

The easiest way to do this is to use n-Up Pages . You should select the following options:

• From the first screen, “Remove unused space at the edge of each sheet” and “No, place pages full size”.

• From the second screen, select “Margins” and fill in the margins that you want. Select the “crop marks” option if required.

• From the third screen, select a page size of “Maximum (45 x 45 inches)” (this is “Maximum (200 x 200 inches) in Acrobat 4.0) and set “Maximum columns” and “Maximum rows” both to 1.

Each page will be placed on a large sheet, perhaps adding marks at each corner, then all extra space will be trimmed from the sheet except that defined by your margins.

...split even and odd pages?

You may want to split even and odd pages for printing separately. This is easy with Shuffle Even/Odd Pages , which has the option to create two documents.

...allow for “creep”?

The term “creep” refers to an effect caused by the thickness of paper. When a number of sheets are folded over, those on the inside will appear to have the contents closer to the outside edge of the page.

You can use Trim And Shift to shift a range of pages by a variable amount, including doing the “back and forth” shifting necessary for creep.

Sometimes printers like to also allow for folding of paper along other edges; processes often called bottling and shingling. It is not easy to allow for these in Quite Imposing.

...manipulate even and odd pages separately?

The Trim And Shift function lets you process even and odd separately. If you need to use a different function, which doesn’t have this option, use Shuffle Even/Odd Pages once to split into two files, manipulate each file, and then Shuffle Even/Odd Pages to join the two halves together again.

...do this complicated job?

Try and understand what each of the components of Quite Imposing will do. You may need to string together several different actions, as described above in “How do I plan an imposition” to get the end result you need. Always remember that since the actions produce a PDF document you can apply more actions to it. Don’t be afraid to experiment – you will be able to check your results on screen before committing them to film or plate. Use Remember Last Action to save the more complicated settings so you can use them again.

Also read When not to use Quite Imposing , to see if what you want to do isn’t really in the scope we intended.

Tips for desktop printing

Traditional imposition packages have been aimed firmly at people in the printing and publishing industries who use expensive and specialised printing equipment. Quite Imposing is suitable for this sort of work, but because it works with any kind of printer supported by Acrobat, is likely to be used also for printing booklets on the desktop (that is, with an ordinary printer).

We’ve collected a few tips from our own experiences about how to get the best out of Quite Imposing when using regular desktop printers. Sadly, we can’t give a simple “do this – it will work” recipe, because there are so many variations between desktop printers.

Double sided printing

For many kinds of work, it is almost essential to print both sides of the paper. The ideal is a printer which does this automatically, as some laser printers can. If you have much printing to do, such a printer may be a good investment, but you should arrange a demonstration to ensure that you can print double sided from Acrobat software.

You may be able to print single sided but make use of a photocopier that can duplicate from a single sided original to a double sided copy.

The other option is to print double sided by putting printed paper back into your printer to print the other side. The next pages have advice on how to go about this.

Remember that when printing double sided the quality of the paper really counts. Thin or cheap paper will probably have too much of the opposite side visible.

Tips for desktop printing

Printing double sided on a single sided printer

First, an important warning. Many laser printers (and some photocopiers) do not perform well when paper that has been printed is put back into the printer. You often need a higher grade of paper than you would otherwise use, and even then, paper jams can be common. Remember that a single jam has the potential to ruin an entire booklet.

Some printers can be harmed by putting used paper back in, and it may invalidate the printer’s warranty. You are strongly advised to check with the manufacturer before any experiments, to avoid the possibility of damage. This is, however, unlikely to be a problem with printers that do not use either heat or excessive moisture, so most ink jet printers should be safe to use – but check if in doubt.

The following pages describe the techniques to prepare for accurate double sided printing. Practice carefully with short sample documents until you are satisfied.

There are two approaches to printing several copies of documents with several sheets, and you should be aware of both.

1. Print all of the fronts of one or more document copies, then put the paper back in and print all of the backs of the copies. The disadvantage of this is that a single mistake or paper jam can ruin the entire batch.

2. Print all of the copies of the front of a single sheet, then put this back in and print the backs to that sheet. Then repeat for each sheet. The disadvantage of this is that it takes more work to do the printing and to re-order (“collate”) the copies.

Step 1 – the paper path

The first thing to establish, once you know it is safe to put paper back, is how to put paper back. Prepare a single page using Create Sample Document in Exchange, and print it.

Then put the paper back, and print it again. You probably won’t have the back and front on opposite sides and the same way up. There are four ways to put the paper back, assuming the paper in tray and out tray are both horizontal:

1. Lift the paper and without turning it in any way, place it in the input tray.

2. Lift the paper. Keep it flat, and turn it so that anything on the page (which might be blank) is upside down.

3. Flip the paper over so you can see the other side, holding on to the short edge.

4. As 3, but holding on to the long edge.

Note which is successful, and use it every time. If you have to stack the paper after it is printed and before putting it back in the printer, always be systematic and follow the same routine.

Step 2 – the paper order

Now you can put a single sheet back in to print the opposite side, you need to find which order to print the backs of the pages.

Create a 2-page sample document. Print it, and put the paper back and print it again. There are two possible results if you put the paper back correctly.

1. One sheet has “1” on both sides, and another has “2” on both sides. In this case you can print the backs of pages in the same order as front pages.

2. Both sheets have “1” on one side and “2” on the other.

In this case you must print the backs of the pages in the reverse order to the front pages.

You can use this information to give the correct information when running Shuffle Even/Odd Pages . If you are using Create booklet , there is no need to use Shuffle Even/Odd Pages, since the same options are available directly in booklet creation.

It is usually sensible to split into two documents, one containing fronts and one containing backs. The choices made above determine whether the pages in the backs document are to be handled in reverse order.

Sometimes when you print a booklet the sheets for each booklet will come out in the wrong order, needing manual shuffling. Sometimes this can be fixed just by printing the backs first, then the fronts. If this doesn’t fix it, you can use the Reverse Pages function just before printing to improve matters.

Step 3 – image positioning

This step will compensate for differences between how a page appears on screen, and how it appears on paper.

A sample page created with Create Sample Document contains two rules, one 20 mm from the edge, and one 1 inch from the edge. Create a sample page the same size as the pages you intend to print, and print it.

It’s important to use options consistently. You shouldn’t normally use “shrink to fit” on the Acrobat print dialog. If you do, measurements may not be consistent. Make sure paper size is set up exactly the same in Printer Setup.

Now, use a ruler to measure the actual distance to the bottom and left edge of the paper from the lines of your choice. On most printers you will find that the figures are not exactly 20mm/1 inch as expected.

Small variations will arise from inaccuracies in the paper feeding mechanism, and can be ignored. More serious discrepancies can occur, especially if a printer does not have the same margins top and bottom or left and right. You can use the Trim And Shift function to compensate for this, or using n-Up Pages you may be able to set margins to compensate directly.

Occasionally, the front and back will need different compensations.

Tip: some printers may offer a choice of ways to use the same page size, such as “Letter” and “Letter (centred)”. You may find that the “centred” version prints without the need for correction.

Extra equipment

For a professional finish, two extra pieces of equipment are invaluable: a paper cutter and a long arm stapler.

A long arm stapler is obviously useful. When buying one, check the length of the arm, and the capacity (number of sheets) to see if it is sufficient. It’s best to staple before the final trimming if possible, as the staples then keep the pages from moving while you are trimming.

Good paper cutters (or guillotines) can be expensive. Cheaper ones tend to have a very limited capacity, and can’t cut enough sheets simultaneously to be effective. A limited cutter is still useful if you have to, say, cut pages in half but it is very difficult to get pages exactly the same size if cut in more than one operation. An adjustable guide, which allows you to push pages against it for precise cutting, can be helpful.

If you have a good enough cutter, it can be used for finishing. It can be useful to trim the edges of a booklet after folding and stapling it, even if it doesn’t seem to be necessary. If you trim the edge opposite the staple(s), it will be much easier to flip through the pages.

Using backgrounds

Most people will perform imposition onto blank sheets. However, some people will want to use background pages.

Backgrounds allow you to include, perhaps, your company logo or special marks on an imposition automatically. It’s almost as easy to work with backgrounds as it is with blank sheets, once you have prepared the background. You should make these pages up to be exactly the correct size.

Note that when you impose on a background you may or may not see the background through the page. This depends on the application creating the pages.

You can use backgrounds for n-Up Pages and (not entirely obviously) Insert Blank Pages .

All of these allow you to select from a list of page sizes. If you go to the top or bottom of the list you will see an entry for More Choices. You can select this, then select Define a new custom background. Now you are shown the Define New Background screen. Alternatively, use Imposition Preferences .

You should normally give this background a sensible name. It will then be remembered permanently. If you do not give the background a name, it will be forgotten when Exchange closes.

After selecting a name, click the File button, and choose the PDF file containing the background. In many cases that is all you will need to do. The entire file will be used as backgrounds, though in most cases you will have a background file with only a single page.

More background choices

The backgrounds feature has a good deal of flexibility.

1. You could define different backgrounds for even and odd numbered sheets, simply by defining two pages as the background; the pair will be repeated.

2. You could create a single PDF file containing many background sheets with different sizes or contents, and set different names for different pages.

3. You could define a front sheet, then a page to be repeated for subsequent sheets. The sheet to repeat could be blank.

4. You can define a sequence of sheets which is only to be used once, if each sheet is numbered in advance.

All of these are easily selected using the options on the Define New Background screen. Options include:

• Use entire file again and again (the default)

• Use entire file just once (as in 4. above)

• Use a range of pages (as in 2. above to define a library of backgrounds in one PDF file).

If you choose a range of pages you can also choose whether to repeat all the pages or use them just once. You can also choose to repeat less than the entire sequence. For instance you could use pages 1 to 2, and then repeat just the last 1 page (as in 3. above).

Smart crop marks

The n-Up Pages function uses smart crop marks. These are marks intended to show where to trim or fold the printed sheet. We call them smart marks because they never overlap a page, and convert to fold marks when then need to.

This diagrams shows some (exaggerated) marks.

You can see normal crop marks in each corner, for instance at a. There are also normal crop marks running down the central gap, though the marks overlap each other, for instance at c.

At b there is no room for the horizontal part of the marks because they would overlap the tops of the adjoining pages, so only the vertical part appears, as a fold mark.

At d the pages don’t touch but they are too close to allow the vertical parts of the mark to be used.

Notes on smart crop marks

1. The crop mark size can be changed for n-Up Pages using the Custom crop marks button.

2. The default dimensions of marks are as follows.

Marks start 10 points (0.14 inches, 3.5 mm) from the edge of a page, and are 20 points (0.28 inches, 7.1 mm) long. Marks will never be placed if any part of them would be less than 10 points from a page.

This implies that if you want default-sized marks to appear between a row or column of pages the spacing must be at least 40 points (0.56 inches, 14.2 mm).

3. When performing colour separation, the choice of plates containing the crop marks is important. Crop marks may be defined on the black plate only, the CMYK plate, or all plates. You can choose which, by using Imposition Preferences .

Imposition Control Panel

The Imposition Control Panel is designed as an easy way to use all of the functions offered by Quite Imposing. You never need to use the control panel, as all functions can be reach directly from the Plug-ins | Imposition menu.

The control panel has a lot of buttons, but they are divided into groups to make it easier to find the function you want.

The buttons are in groups, and are as follows.

Easy imposition: Create booklet, n-Up Pages, Join Two Pages.

Page management: Shuffle Even/Odd Pages, Shuffle Pages For Imposing, Reverse Pages, Trim And Shift, Insert Blank Pages, Create Sample Document.

Memory: Remember Last Action, Playback Action .

The question mark (? or ??) buttons and on-line guide

The control panel contains a button marked with a question mark (?). This opens the on-line guide.

There is also a button marked with two question marks (??). This opens the About Quite Imposing dialog, where you can check licensing information and get your serial number. Click More info to find out the name of your plug- in, for uninstalling or checking the name of the on-line guide (see below). Press the Guide button to open the online guide.

The on-line guide contains all of the information from the printed manual, reformatted and linked for on-line use. If the Guide button gives an error message because the guide cannot be found, you may need to make sure you have copied the guide to the right place and given it the right name.

• In Windows, the guide is in the Acrobat plug-ins directory, which is by default c:\acrobat3\exchange\plug_ins or c:\program files\adobe\acrobat 4.0\acrobat\plug_ins. It must have the same name as the plug-in (click More info on the about screen to check this name), but with a file type of PDF instead of API.

• On the Macintosh, the guide is also in the Acrobat plug-ins folder, typically Adobe Acrobat 3.0:Plug-ins or Adobe Acrobat 4.0:Plug-ins. The name must be the same as the plug-in name, but with “Guide” added, e.g. “Quite Imposing Guide”.

Imposition Preferences

Imposition preferences can be set using File | Preferences | Quite Imposing, or by pressing the Preferences button on the Imposition Control Panel .

New custom sizes and backgrounds

From this screen you can define new custom page sizes or backgrounds (see Using backgrounds ). These can also be set from other screens which list page sizes, by selecting More Choices from the list.

From this screen you can also remove sizes and backgrounds no longer needed, to keep the list a manageable size.

Registration mark colour

When Quite Imposing adds registration marks, they will always appear black on screen. However, the marks can be made in any of three ways. You will not see any difference when printing either, unless you are making colour separations. If making separations, you may want to choose one of the options:

• Black marks only on the black plate. This is useful if the pages are actually black and white only; some separation systems may produce unnecessary plates otherwise.

• CMYK marks each of the cyan, magenta, yellow and black plates.

• All separations marks all separations in a level 2 PostScript device; in other contexts, same as CMYK.

Remember Last Action

Many of the functions in Quite Imposing have several different settings and you will want to apply those settings again and again. Using Remember Last Action you can save all of the settings for a single function, and give them a name.

For instance, you might want to use n-Up Pages repeatedly to set up a page layout that is 12 inches by 14, with pages to be arranged 3 by 4, and crop marks added. To remember this just do the following steps:

1. Run the action (n-up pages) and fill in all the necessary values.

2. Make sure that you allow the function to complete – actually create n-up pages. If you don’t, you will not save the correct values.

3. Select Remember Last Action from the Plug-ins | Imposition menu, or from the Imposition Control Panel.

4. Make sure that an action type of n-up pages is shown.

5. Type a name for this action, which is short enough to fit but which describes it enough for you. For instance “3x4 on 12x14 in, crop”. Click OK. The action is now remembered. If an action by the same name already exists, you are offered the chance to replace it. Once settings are saved you can play them back with Playback Action .

Notes on Remember last action

You can save settings for most relevant actions, but not Reverse Pages , since it has no options to save.

You do not need to save the settings immediately; you can save them at any time before you use the action again, or close Acrobat Exchange. However, it is recommended that you save settings immediately.

Where are settings saved?

All settings are saved in the file qimppref.pdf. This file will be located in a folder Quite, within the Acrobat plug- ins folder. If you delete this file, all settings are lost, including other categories of information like custom page sizes.

The qimppref.pdf file can be moved to other systems, even between Windows and Macintosh systems. All settings are moved, though references to background files (see Using backgrounds ) will no longer work.

Playback Action

After you remember an action with Remember Last Action you can use Playback Action, from the Plug-ins | Imposition menu or the imposition control panel, to get back the settings and start the command again.

Playback Action does not complete the action. Instead it issues the same series of prompts that would have been issued if you had decided to run the action in the normal way. All the remembered settings should be filled in, so in most cases clicking OK or Next a few times (or just pressing the Return key) will repeat the command. You can change any settings required.

Once you have started the Playback Action window, you do not need to close it. When you select an action and a name, then click Play, the Playback window remains open to allow you to quickly play a series of actions.

Notes on Playback action

• Almost all settings are saved. However, take care of actions where you type a page number. The actual number will not usually be saved; the current page number is more likely to be used.

• The Playback action window also allows you to delete actions you no longer require.

Create booklet

The Create Booklet function is designed to deal with the most common task in imposition – the creation of a booklet. It asks a series of questions which should lead you to creating the booklet ready for printing.

You can run Create Booklet by clicking the Booklet button on the Imposition Control Panel , or by selecting the menu item Plug-ins | Imposition | Create booklet.

When you create a booklet, you must first open the document that you want turned into a booklet. This will not be changed. A new document is created, and each sheet of that document will contain two pages of the original document, re-ordered.

Creating a sample document

Booklet creation can be challenging, because you will have to print and bind the results. Techniques for double-sided printing will vary. To help you with this, Create Booklet allows you to simply create a sample document of any size. The pages will contain numbers, and you can experiment with different settings to see what works for you and your printer.

Selecting sheet size for booklets

You will be asked to select the sheet size for the target document. There are several choices.

• You can select a sheet large enough to hold two pages from the original. That guarantees sizes will not be changed, but does not guarantee that the results will fit on any particular size of paper.

• You can select any specific page size, including wide letter (11 x 8.5 inches) or wide a4. Wide here refers to the shape of the paper, not to a special size. When you pick a different page size make sure you select wide or tall, whichever is appropriate. The pages will be scaled up or down to fill the space available.

If the original document has different sizes of page, the largest page is used to do all calculations.

Selecting a binding

The binding refers to what you will do once you have printed the booklet sheets.

• Continuous means that the pages will simply run 1, 2, 3, 4, ... Normally, this won’t be folded in half, just stapled along an edge or in the corner, or punched and filed. It can be a good way to present a hand-out of a presentation.

• Saddle stitched is the most common type of booklet, and what most people will choose. Once the pages are all printed, you simply fold in half, and the numbers will run from front to back. There may be up to three blank pages added at the end if the number of pages is not a multiple of 4.

• Perfect bound is more like a bound book. It can be thought of as a series of saddle stitched booklets each of which is read in sequence. For instance, the first booklet may have pages 1–32, the next 33–64 and so on. This is suitable for long documents which are too thick to fold once. You select the size of each signature, or group of pages – 32 in the above case (which will be 8 pieces of paper when printed double sided). You also decide what to do with the last signature if it is not full length; it can be padded out to full length, or just to a multiple of four pages.

• Cut stacks is new with 1.2. With this the sheets are printed, then cut in half. One half is lifted on to the other, and the book is now in order. This is normally double sided, but there is also the option to arrange for single sided stacks.

Handling fronts and backs

In an ideal world we will all have printers that can print on both sides of a sheet of paper. In this case the work of Create Booklet is done, since we can just print. However, many people will have to print the front and backs separately. A number of options will help you do this.

As noted earlier, you will probably need to experiment. Some laser printers are very unreliable when printed sheets are fed back into the printer; in some cases using a better quality of paper will help.

• You can keep the pages in order, but flip the backs upside down. Some double sided printing will need this.

• You can create a single document with all of the fronts, then all of the backs. This is convenient if you count an exact number of sheets into your printer; when the paper runs out, put back the printed sheets to print the back.

• You can create two documents, one with the fronts and one with the backs. This gives you the most flexibility.

Some printers do not centre pages when they print them, so the front and back do not line up. You can solve this by producing separate documents for front and back, then using the Trim And Shift facility to adjust one side.

Advanced users will also find they can use Trim and Shift to allow for creep, which is movement of page contents caused by the thickness of the paper.

Starting with 1.2, Trim and Shift can also be used to ensure all pages are the same size before you make a booklet.

Choosing alignment

Pages don’t always fit exactly onto the final sheets. This will always happen if the original document uses a mixture of page sizes, but it can also happen if you choose a specific sheet size that doesn’t exactly hold two scaled pages.

This never happens if all the pages are the same size and you allow the size of sheets to be chosen automatically.

When pages don’t fit exactly, you can now choose how they are to be aligned. The final booklet screen offers three choices. A diagram on the screen helps to show the effect of each choice.

1. Each page can be centred in its half of the page. This is usually the best choice. It means that when a page is under-sized it is likely to have an equal sized margin throughout.

2. Each page can be pulled to the centre of the sheet. This is often thought of as the “spine” for saddle stitched or perfect bound. This is useful if you wish to trim the sheets after printing the pages.

3. Each page can be place in the bottom left of its half of the sheet. This was the only option in version 1.0, and is kept mainly for compatibility; it is not usually recommended. Note that there is an additional difference in this mode. The right-hand sheet is placed immediately to the right of the largest left-hand sheet, rather than being placed immediately to the right of the centre of the sheet.

n-Up Pages

n-up is shorthand for 2-up, 3-up etc., that is combining more than one page together on the same sheet. Quite Imposing takes care of the details of combining pages, once you have answered some questions about what you want. It reads the current document, but does not change it, and creates a new document with the pages arranged onto sheets.

It’s worth knowing what the n-Up Pages feature can do for you:

• You can scale pages down to make more of them fit on a sheet.

• You can make each sheet have a fixed layout, like 3 across and 2 down, or just ask to fit as many pages as possible.

• You pick a maximum size for each sheet. You can ask for a tall or wide page layout, or choose “best fit”, which chooses tall or wide to get the most pages onto each sheet.

• You can have unused space removed around the edge of each sheet, so that the combined document contains neatly arranged pages with no wasted space.

• You can add margins (also known as “gutters”) between each page, and around the edge of each sheet.

• You can add frames (lines around the edge of each page), and crop marks (special marks outside the page which allow the pages to be trimmed after printing).

Choosing options for n-up Pages

You will select options on three page, then click the Finish button. The options won’t be described in detail, since they just reflect the features already described.

You use the Next button to step through each screen of information, and you can also use the Back button to change settings on earlier screens.

You will notice that on the first screen you can choose whether or not you want pages to be scaled. In most imposition tasks you will want to place every page at 100%.

The choices on the final screen will change depending on whether you chose scaling. Notice in particular the effect of choosing a particular layout like 3 x 2.

• With scaling off, this is a maximum. If that number of rows or columns will not fit, fewer will be used.

• With scaling on, the pages are reduced or enlarged to try and fit exactly that layout.

n-Up Pages

Selecting margins and spacing

You have three choices for margins and spacing in n-up processing: none at all, simple, and advanced.

Simple margins and spacing will satisfy many needs. You can specify a margin, to appear all round the sheet, and a spacing, to appear between each row and column on the sheet.

Advanced margins take longer to set up, but give more flexibility. Click the Advanced margins and spacing check box if required, then click the Setup button.

You can now select a value for each of the four margins: top, left, bottom and right (remembering that, if you do not automatically trim pages, the right and bottom margins may be larger, but will never be smaller).

You can also select values for spacing (or “gutter”), both horizontal and vertical. These allow you to put a single value or a list. In either case, the value(s) are repeated as often as needed. The list of values must be separated by spaces only.

Notes about n-up pages

1. As you change options like layout and page size on the final screen, the bottom of the screen will show an upto-date calculation for number of sheets, sheet layout etc.

2. You can automatically apply backgrounds from a different PDF file, as described in Using backgrounds .

All background pages must be the same size for n-up processing.

3. Quite Imposing uses Smart crop marks which will not overlap the contents of pages. If you switch on crop marks, you can click the Custom button to change the mark size and spacing.

4. You can use the n-Up Pages feature even if the pages are different sizes. If you choose automatic scaling, and a fixed layout like 2 by 3, this will be followed, though the scaling chosen will be based on the first page. If you don’t choose a fixed layout, the pages will be fitted as tightly as possible.

5. Page layout always starts in the top left hand corner, and runs from left to right, then top to bottom.

6. If your choices mean that some pages would be larger than the target sheets, the sheets will be enlarged. You will be warned and given the chance to cancel.

7. By choosing a 1 by 1 layout you can use this function to add margins or crop marks around existing pages.

8. If you choose background sheets and to trim sheets, you may lose part of the background (probably the right and bottom of the sheet).

Join Two Pages

The Join Two Pages function is a very simple way to take two separate pages in a PDF file and make them into one, side by side. This can be useful where the original document contained a spread, which is a single article or artwork intended to be printed on two pages, but bound facing one another.

Remember that as with almost all the functions in Quite Imposing, links and bookmarks will not survive running Join Two Pages.

Although Join Two Pages will only join two pages, you can use it repeatedly to join three or more pages up to the size limit of Acrobat (in Acrobat 3.0, 45 inches or 1142 mm wide; in Acrobat 4.0, 200 inches or 5080 mm wide).

The pages are joined together without any changes to margins. If you need to remove space, crop the individual pages before joining them.

See also

You can join all the pairs of pages in a document using the n-Up Pages function.

Shuffle Even/Odd Pages

It is often useful to be able to manage even and odd pages separately. For instance, to do double sided printing on a printer which can only do one side at a time, or to make a systematic change to the fronts and backs separately.

Shuffle Even/Odd Pages offers four choices.

• Do not re-order pages does nothing by itself. But you can optionally choose to reverse the order of the even pages, or turn the even pages upside-down. This can modify an existing document, or create a modified copy.

• Rearrange so all the odds are first, followed by all of the evens. This can be combined with reversing the order of the evens, or turning all evens upside down.

This too can modify an existing document, or create a modified copy. There is no direct way to undo this rearrangement.

• Split into two new documents, one from odd pages, the other from even pages. The documents can be separately processed, and joined again if required.

• Join two documents together, assumed to contain even and odd pages from the previous function (though they can come from other sources). You select two open documents from a list. As with most imposition functions, shuffling pages can damage links and bookmarks.

See also

Shuffle Pages For Imposing for more advanced shuffling.

Shuffle Pages For Imposing

Of all the functions in Quite Imposing this is the one which will require the most preparation. It re-orders pages according to a set of instructions of your choice.

This is not usually the last step in imposition. This is most often followed by n-Up Pages . The order of the pages reflects what binding will be given to the final book.

To work out the order of the pages, you may read from a reference book or make a folding model, a piece of paper you fold according to your requirements, then number the pages and unfold to read off the required order. The front and back of the model will usually (but not necessarily) appear on separate plates.

In working out the required order, you should remember that if you are going to use the n-Up Pages function, it will lay out pages from the top left, going from left to right then top to bottom.

You can choose whether to create a new document with a rearrangement of the current document, or to rearrange the current document itself. Until you are experienced, we’d strongly recommend you create a new document.

You can now instantly preview the effect of the rules. Click the Preview button on the shuffle pages screen, and choose the eventual layout you will have (for instance, 4 columns and two rows on each sheet). Quite Imposing will show the effect of a shuffle by using a grid of pages containing numbers. You can check how the entire document will be laid out.

Choosing the rules

There are only two pieces of information for you to choose. First you must choose the group size. This is the number of pages before the ordering sequence starts again. You can type in an order for a whole publication of, say, 64 pages, but there is usually no point, since each sheet or pair of sheets is likely to follow the same rules.

The rules you type are repeated again and again until the document is exhausted. If the number of pages in the document is not an exact number of groups, blank pages will be added to fill out the last group, before starting the rearrangement.

The rules themselves are just a list of page numbers in the first group. For instance, if you have a group size of 16, you would list all of the numbers from 1 to 16 in the order required.

Here is a rule for a group of 4 which just reverses the order of the pages in each group: 4 3 2 1.

Sometimes it is necessary to rotate pages as well. You can follow a page number immediately with an asterisk (*) or star symbol to have it turned upside down. Also, you can use less than (<) to rotate 90 degrees anti-clockwise, and greater than (>) to rotate 90 degrees clockwise.

Here is a simple rule for a group of 4 which reverses the page ordering and flips the odd-numbered pages upside- down: 4 3* 2 1*.

A rule can also contain the letter X as often as required. This will insert an extra blank page.

The longest rule you can type is 255 characters.

A worked example

Let’s suppose you have folded up a sheet of paper, or looked up information in a reference book, and you conclude that each page must be rearranged like this: That is, the bottom row are all upside-down.

You can combine pages into this 4 by 2 arrangement using n-Up Pages but first you will have to re-order the pages. You will need to enter the following information:

Group size.................... 8

Page order .................... 5 4 3 6 7* 2* 1* 8*

This example is simpler than most. Often, the front and back of the sheet will make a single rule, since the front and back aren’t identical. Just remember that the rule can cover more than one sheet, and that n-Up Pages will work through the pages, filling sheets, in the order they are arranged.

Another worked example

This example shows how to make sheets that appear to be incomplete, by inserting extra blank pages before running n-up. Although you can use Insert Blank Pages , it is easier to insert the blanks at the same time as shuffling pages, if you already have to shuffle.

Here is a possible layout of the first four sheets: To obtain this layout you would arrange for blank pages to occur wherever there is a space on the sheet.

Group size........ 12

Page order ........ 12 1 8 5 2 11 6 7 10 3 X X 4 9 X X

The X entries will insert the blank pages which are shown on the layout above surrounded by broken lines.

Shuffling for a 4-up booklet

Quite Imposing has built-in support for simple booklets which appear with 2 pages on each sheet. One reason it does not include support for booklets with 4 pages per sheet is that there are a great many different ways to lay out 4-up booklets. The following gives just one suggestion, but it is not ideal, as we will see on the next page.

This sequence can be used to make a 16-page booklet, or to make a booklet of any size containing 16-page signatures (essentially a number of booklets bound together one after the other, as in a bound book).

This illustration shows the layout of four sheets (intended to be printed double sided onto two sheets of paper).

This is a group size of 16 and a page ordering rule of 16 1 9* 8* 2 15 7* 10* 14 3 11* 6* 4 13 5* 12*, followed by using n-up to lay out 2 by 2.

After printing onto the two sheets of paper:

1. Place the two sheets together, and fold along the line between a and b, so that 16–1 is facing you.

2. Now fold in half again, so page 1 is facing you.

3. Trim off the bottom edge (cutting off the fold a–b). Folding models may seem complicated but this only took a few minutes.

Shuffling for a larger saddle stitched booklet

There are two problems with the rule we discussed on the previous page.

1. You would not want to type the sequence necessary to shuffle a larger booklet or magazine.

2. In practical terms, the method we suggest is not suitable for a thick booklet. Putting all the sheets together to make the first fold (a to b) would be awkward, and would tend to cause the contents of pages to shift.

For the second reason, impositions intended for thick booklets with a single fold (called saddle stitched) will usually make one or more fold to each separate sheet (perhaps 2 sheets). Only the final fold, for the spine, might be done after combining sheets, but even that is normally folded in advance, and the folded sheets slipped together.

Starting with version 1.2, Quite Imposing can now deal easily with the rules for saddle stitching.

Using the Advanced button you select saddle stitching. Then, you define a rule which covers all folds except the last one. That is, you consider how many sheets are folded together before they are combined and folded along the spine.

Most often this is just one sheet, so the rule has to cover just the front and back.

A booklet with no additional folds (except the spine fold) can be completely described by the rule 4 1 2 3, and the saddle stitch option, no matter how many sheets it will contain.

A new example for a 4-up booklet

This example returns to our earlier problem, a 4-up booklet. But this time we will define the rule using the saddle stitch option (on the Advanced button). Here is the layout for the front and back of a booklet made from a single sheet: This sheet would be printed on both sides, folded along the line a to b first, then the final fold.

This has the rule: 8 1 5* 4* 2 7 3* 6* and group size 8.

If you try the same rule with larger booklets and the saddle stitch option, you will find it automatically adjusts to any number of pages. For instance this is what will happen with two sheets. Remember that each sheet is folded separately along the line a to b before being combined.

So long as you select the saddle stitched option under Advanced, the same rule is used, with a group size of 8, no matter how many pages are in the document.

Notes on Shuffle Pages for Imposing

1. There are other tools which shuffle pages, and they are usually simpler to use if they apply. You can use Shuffle Even/Odd Pages to process even/odd pages separately; this will do things Shuffle Pages for Imposing cannot do, like split even and odd pages into two separate files. This would most often be done as the last step, after n-Up Pages .

2. To reverse the order of all pages, you can use Reverse Pages .

3. If you miss out any pages in the sequence, you will receive a warning message. The implication is that you want those pages to be deleted, but it is more often caused by a mistake. For safety, you will not be allowed to use a sequence that deletes pages unless you select the Create New Document option.

4. You can enter page numbers more than once in the sequence. Again, this is usually a mistake, and you will receive a warning message. If you confirm that you want to continue, you will have pages duplicated, which is sometimes useful. As with page deletion, you must select the Create New Document option.

5. You can save the options used, just as for most other imposition actions, using Remember Last Action , and use the options again with Playback Action .

Reverse Pages

Reverse Pages simply reverses the order of the pages in a document. You will have the choice of creating a new document containing the reversed pages, leaving the original unchanged, or re-ordering the pages within the document.

Note that, as with most imposition functions, links and bookmarks will be lost or damaged. Reversing the pages again will not undo the damage. Unlike most actions, you cannot remember Reverse Pages with Remember Last Action .

See also

Shuffle Even/Odd Pages and Shuffle Pages For Imposing both rearrange pages as well.

Trim And Shift

Trim and Shift allows you to resize pages and move the contents of pages. It is worth comparing it with the standard cropping function (Document | Crop Pages). For simple cropping, the existing tools are often easier.

Page selection

When you run Trim and Shift you are first asked which pages to work on. You can select all pages, a single page or a range of pages. You can also select to work on even only, or odd only.

If you want to process both even and odd pages, but in different ways, you need to run Trim and Shift Twice.

You can also choose to create a new document, leaving the original untouched.

Advanced options

The Advanced button on the first Trim and Shift page allows you to choose between two modes of operation.

1. In “original” mode (same as 1.0) trim and shift can uncover information that was previously cropped. In addition only the page origin is moved, so annotations, form fields etc. stay in the same place. This has the side effect that when exporting PostScript the image origin shifts, so trim and shift sometimes can’t be used to adjust the printed image position.

2. In “improved” mode, trim and shift will never uncover information previously cropped, so cropping can’t accidentally be lost. Additionally, the page contents are moved rather than the origin, which is set to the bottom left of a printed sheet. This means annotations etc. may move. But it should also mean more consistent PostScript printing. No single choice will suit everyone, so you should examine them to see which one meets your needs.

Trimming options

‘Trimming” also includes enlarging pages. You can select one of these options.

• Do not trim. You may choose this if you only want to shift.

• Trim space from the edge of pages. You select which edge, and the amount to trim. Note that the units (inches, mm, or points) are those set in General Preferences.

• Add extra space around the edge of pages. Unlike the existing cropping tools, you can make a page larger than its original size. In this case the contents of the new area will typically be white, but where objects originally extended off the page the result is unpredictable (Distiller may remove some, but not all, such objects).

• Make all pages the same size. Pages are enlarged or cropped to fit a specific size. The existing page is centred, and may be cut off if it is too large.

Shifting options.

You can choose one of the following options. Not that, as with trimming, the units (inches, mm, or points) are those set in General Preferences.

• Do not shift. Use this if you only want to trim.

• Shift the contents of each page by a fixed amount. This is often needed to allow for binding. Often, even and odd pages need to be shifted separately. You choose the direction (up, down, left or right) and the amount to shift.

• Shift the contents by a variable amount. You choose the direction, and the amount to shift the first and last pages. All pages in between are shifted in proportion.

• Shift the contents of each page for booklet folding.

This can be used to bind more accurately allowing for the thickness of paper. The paper thickness tends to mean that pages closer to the centre are closer to the edge of the bound book; this effect is often called “creep”.

For this function you enter the length in pages of each group (or “signature”), and the amount to shift the pages on the inside and outside of the signature. The outside edge is usually moved more than the outside, so you might use 1/6 inch for the outside, and 0 for the inside. You could also balance the move, for instance choosing 3 mm for the outside and -3 mm for the inside (any shift amount can be negative).

About links and bookmarks

Few of the functions in Quite Imposing will leave bookmarks and links undamaged. Trim and shift will, however, keep links valid provided you do not ask it to create a new document, and provided you chose “original” under Advanced options.

Warning: about uncovering information

By using the Trim and Shift function, you can cause information to become visible which was previously off the edge of the page (if “original” is chosen from Advanced options). There is nothing wrong with doing this if you are uncovering an area which was previous cropped or trimmed in Exchange.

It is potentially risky to uncover information outside the original page area. The reason is that there is no guarantee you will find anything there. In order to reduce file sizes, both Acrobat Distiller and your page make-up application may have removed information, so if you expand the page you might see nothing.

Tests with Distiller 3.01 suggest that it removes any object – including characters forming part of a word – which is completely outside the original page size (also called the “media box”). However, it appears not to trim solid objects or pictures, which extend off the edge.

You should bear in mind that this behaviour might change in future, so it is not wise to base a long term strategy on being able to find information outside the media box.

Trim And Shift

Insert Blank Pages

The Insert Blank Pages function is most often used to add extra blank pages to a document for binding purposes. You can choose to add one or more blank pages before or after the current page, or at the beginning or end of the current document.

You can also use Insert Blank Pages to create a complete new document. This function is available even if no documents are open.

You are able to pick the page size you want the new pages to be. You have the option of using the same size as the currently displayed page, which is most often what you will want.

You can even select a background PDF file. In this case the pages inserted will not be blank, but will have copies of the pages in the background file. See Create booklet for more information.

See also

Create Sample Document can be used to create a new document whose pages are numbered and marked, for testing imposition and printing.

Create Sample Document

Imposition can require practice, especially when it comes to printing out correctly. For this it is useful to be able to have test documents with known properties.

Choosing Create Sample Document gives you a choice of page sizes and number of pages. Each page of the sample document is filled with light grey and has a thick border and large page number. Each page also has lines 20mm and 1 inch from the edges, so you can check if pages are being cropped when you print, and how much the page shifts.

See also

Insert Blank Pages can be used to create new documents which are completely blank.

Special definitions

source This is the document or page which you are imposing from. It is not normally modified, but instead used to create or overlay the target.

target The document which is modified when you run imposition.

sheet A sheet is just a page in the target document. The word sheet is used rather than page, so it is clearer which document we are talking about.

landscape, portrait These terms can be confusing, as landscape sometimes refers to the shape of a page, sometimes to the fact that it is rotated. We use wide and tall.